The Woodman's Tale, after the manner of Spenser. To which are added other poems ... and the Royal Message, a drama

Front matter

THE WOODMAN'S TALE, AND OTHER POEMS, WOODMAN'S TALE, AFTER THE MANNER OF SPENSER. TO WHICH ARE ADDED, OTHER POEMS, CHIEFLY NARRATIVE AND LYRIC, AND THE ROYAL MESSAGE, A DRAMA, BY THE REV. HENRY BOYD, A. M. TRANSLATOR OF THE DIVINA COMEDIA OF DANTE. VICAR OF DRUMGATH IN IRELAND, And Chaplain to the Right Honourable Lord Viscount Charleville. LONDON: PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, AND ORME, PATERNOSTER-ROW. L805. WRIGHT, Printer, No. 38, St. John's Square, Clerkenwell. CONTENTS. Dedication vii Preface, c „ ix The.

Woodman'* Tale. — Introduction, xii Canto I -, 1 _________ Canto II. 26 Canto III. 4-1 Canto IV. 64 Canto V. 9S Notes on the Woodman's Tak, 113 The Knight of Feltrim, 119 Part II. „ 124 The Dead Man's Belt. — A Legendary Tale, 145 part u, 150 ■ Part III. 155 The Moon Flower. — A Legendary Tale, 161 part II. 168 Part III. 172 The Recognition. — A Tale, 181 Part II. , 188 Part III. 195 Part IV. 201 The Fairy Favour, 205 A Monody on the Death of Joseph Henry, late qfStraffan, Esq. .. 211 To the Right Honourable Lord Viscount Charleville, 216 Imitation of Horace, Lib. 1, Ode 15 220 A Monody on the Death of the late Marquis of Doutnshire, ....... 224 To the Most Noble the Marchioness of Downshire, 229 A Nocturnal View of the Mount near Dromore, '. 232 On Reading some Manuscript Poems written by Miss Stewart, ... 23S To Robert Anderson, Esq. of Edinburgh, 238 Monody on the Death of the Rev. Dr. Henry Leslie, 244 To Miss Bisset, on her Recovery from a Dangerous Illness, ., 251 a VI Imitation of an Italian Ode, 256 Visions of Woodstock, 265 To William Preston, Esq 277 Ode to Frost, 280 To the Right Hon. Lord Viscount Churleville, on the Birth of a Son and Heir 284 Odf on the Marriage of the Right Hon. Francis Hastings Rawdon, EarlofMoira, 238 On the Death of the Rev. William Campbell, D. D 392 To the Reverend Dr. John Kearney, Provost of Trinity College Dublin, , 295 To the Reverend John Smyth, 299 On Reading the Poem of Madoc, by Mr. Southey, 303 On the Death of the Rev. Dr. Leslie, 304 The Royal Message, a Dramatic Poem, 305 Notes on the Royal Message, TO THE MOST NOBLE VII MARCHIONESS OF DOWNSHIRE.

Madam, It might seem arrogance in me, or the result of a design, too often imputed to dedicators, to prefix your Ladyship's name, though by permission, to those trifles, had not the circumstances that led to it, gave it a distinction from common addresses of this sort, that precludes at least the idea of flattery. When your Ladyship selected my homely tribute to the memory of the late Marquis of Downshire, from others written on the occasion, and bestowed on me an elegant and valuable present, rendered more valuable by the letter which accompanied it, a present which, besides the honour con ferred on me, will convey to posterity a lasting evidence of conjugal attachment and piety, I longed for an opportunity of giving some public testimony of my respect and gratitude. L wish, what I here present to your Ladyship, was more worthy of your notice.

Preface

. -N otwithstanding the present indulgence of the public for attempts of the following kind, yet I am convinced that for none is an apology more necessary, than for these that are now submitted to its judgment. Perhaps it will be no excuse that they were written as relaxa tions in the intervals of professional employment, and that they occupied no more of my time, than is usually given to common amusements, for which I had little or no taste. It may probably be objected (if these trifles are not below criticism) that too many of these pages are de voted to the sentiments of private friendship, or to de lineate the characters of some individuals of my ac quaintance, with a favourable pencil. Obscure and humble as my station has been, and still continues, I have been honoured with the acquaintance of several deserving of higher praise than I can bestow, in those departments of society, which it has been the fashion of sophistical and fanatic libellers to assail with indiscriminate obloquy ; I mean the clergy, and those in the higher ranks of life.

Many others could have been selected, if their modesty had allowed such an exhibi tion, or if such commendation as mine could have added any thing to their characters. With regard to the pro priety of occasional panegyric, when merited, I might avail myself of the authority of the Younger Pliny, a competent judge, it will be allowed, of the rules of the court of Parnassus. " The praise, says he, of indivi duals, or of states, has been sanctioned by immemorial usage; but, when a neglect of laudable attainments indicated a contempt of praise, the effect ceased of X course, and panegyric was no more."* But indeed all writers, Christian and Pagan, who desire us to follow things of good report, at least imply, that praise is an useful stimulative to virtue, and there is nothing in the nature of things that renders it incongruous to add the ornaments of numbers and imagery.

With regard to some ancient and modern panegvrists, if Horace had only celebrated the virtues of Proculeius, and had Statius been content to commemorate the birth-day of Lucan, there would have been no inputa tion on the sincerity of either. Dry den indeed often prostituted his genius, but that is no imputation on Prior and Akenside, when the one wrote his address to Sherlock, and the other to Hoadly. It is no affected humility that makes me shrink from a comparison with them, unless in this one point of resemblance, a warm attachment to real merit. Were it necessary, in my vindication, " to call up spirits from the vasty deep," I could appeal to the venerable shade of Virgil himself, who has exhibited in his Elysium, in one august assembly, such characters and such virtues as I have endeavoured to delineate ; characters, in him, ideal, as was the scene in which they are represented.

Not so these ; for to them who know the living, or were acquainted with such as are removed to another state of existence, the lively images of each, as delineated in the following verses, will appear in their genuine colours. Quique sacerdotes casti Quique pii vates, et Phœbo digna locuti, Inventas qui vitam excoluere per artes Quique sui memores alios fecere merendo. •Plin. Eji. L 3, Ep. 81. THE WOODMAN'S TALE, AFTER THE MANNER OF SPENSER. avia pieridvm peracro loca. Lucretius.

Introduction

TO THE WOODMAN'S TALE. Some dreadful examples of the effects, which owed their origin to intemperance, induced me, many years ago, to give a rude delineation of this pernicious habit and its cause in the dress of allegory. To mention the author of the Fairy Queen, as my prototype, will only, I am afraid, be an addition to this memorial of my presumption and disgrace. I could, however, mention the names of some who rank very high indeed in the literary world, to whose inspection the manuscript was submitted, and by whose approbation I was induced to send it abroad ; but I scruple to involve their names in the consequences of my temerity, till it be sanctioned or condemned by the decision of the public. Some credit, I hope, will be allowed to the intention of the following rhapsody, which had long lain neglected among my papers, for, when I wrote it, I lived in a retired country place, with scarce any connection with the literary world, or any friend of whose critical assistance I could then avail myself.

Jlcncc it was not only long neglected, but absolutely forgotten, and I have reason to apprehend, that its many imperfections will accelerate its departure to the land of oblivion once more. — Yet even if by good chance it should travel To ape and monkey climes, With Dunton's prose, or Ward's forgotten rhymes, and fall into the hands of some individuals whom it might in duce to pause, and reflect on the consequences of intemperance, before the habit is confirmed, I should hope my juvenile hours had not been entirely mispent. I shall prefix a few observations for the sake of those who are not in the habit of perusing more elaborate treatises. It is easy to enumerate the different incentives to this degrading habit ; such as the call of pleasure, the social habit, the consolation given to the tipler after the oppression of business, or under the burden of misfortune and care, till the habit is confirmed past all rational hope of change.

It is unnecessary to dwell on a definition of drunkenness, farther than to mention that sometimes it produces what physicians denominate comatose affections, temporary disposition to apoplexy, and often a state resembling paralysis, where the mind retains its powers, while the bodily functions are impaired. Mental derangement, during the period of intoxication, is another of its effects, and all are so common, that they must have fallen under the observation of the most negligent. These are all, while they last, species of malady, the tendency to which is increased by every repetition of excess, and probably still more by the seeming moderation of those who, in their daily draught, keep just within the limits of inebriation; but when this bound is past, the first effect is stimulant and exciting, calling forth vigour of body and mind, pleasurable sensation, and often power of intellect ; the next is loss of voluntary motion and delirium ; the last, a state of debility, from an inordinate action of the several functions.

Alcohol, or pure spirit, is properly that which the Arabians obtained from wine, but is a name now given to all spirit acquired by fermentation, from substances which contain the saccharine principle, and is reckoned by physicians among the narcotics, or those sub. stances which, by their operation on the animal frame, have a tendency to induce sleep or stupor, or suspend sense and motion. It makes very little difference in this case, whether this be caused by a primary exciting power, by which the spirits are wasted, and stupor induced, or by operating imme diately as a sedative ; as, in either case, the animal economy must suffer a material injury, less dreaded, but in reality more formidable, as it takes place by imperceptible degrees. . The gastric juices, or those which operate on the aliment in di gestion, are very powerful, when suffered to complete their process undisturbed, but it is easier to conceive than to ascer tain how much they may be impeded in their office by the superadded fermentation of vinous liquors taken to excess, and when we are told of their wonderful power in the disso lution of substances, it would appear that they want very little assistance indeed from the operation of alcohol, in any of its forms.

The necessity of adding much fermented or spirituous stimulant to that of the aliments on which we subsist, appears to me rather doubtful, from the reasons mentioned, and, as the assistance to the general circulation of the blood and lymphatic juices, which is supposed to be afforded by this snecedaneum, it seems still less certain, as less needful, when we consider the admirable contrivance of nature for that purpose, illustrated, if not discovered, by the late Dr. Crawford, in his Treatise on Animal Heat. The heat of the blood com pared with that of the nourishment which we receive, shews, by the great excess of the former, that it must be derived from another source than from the food we consume ; this, according to him, can only be from the external air, which, being decomposed in the lungs, gives out its latent heat, and communicates to the blood those qualities, by which it appears how much health, digestion, and a good circulation are connected together, and how far they all are promoted by exercise in good air; if it be said that the aliments, in the process of digestion, give out more heat, which was before latent, than enters into Dr. Crawford's calculation, still this shews, that less additional stimulant or calorique is necessary for the purpose, than is commonly imagined.* The effect of alcohol upon animal solids is known to be constringent, and that it suspends their progress towards putrefaction, when separated from the body.

In this respect, its operation is directly contrary to that of a menstruum or digester ; it coagulates the serum of the blood, and most of the secreted fluids, it deoxygenates or separates the vital air from the blood, by which its florid tint is lost, and, in habitual drunkards, the arterial blood becomes of a dark venous colour, except the eruptions on the face, which acquire a florid hue from the atmosphere, from which they are only separated by a thin cuticle. I must refer the reader to Dr. Trotter's book on Intem perance, for his observations on the component parts of al cohol ; the great quantity of hydrogen or inflammable air which it contains ; the singular phenomenon of an habitual drunkard's breath taking fire by the application of a candle from the predominance of this ingredient, and the probability of the vast consumption of vital air in such cases, and the mischief to which this must give cause.

He illustrates the latter by the information given by Mr. Spalding, the cele brated diver, who found the air in his bell consumed in a shorter time when he drank spirits, than when he only used water. The biliary secretions, he thinks, must be much af- • See Trotter _n the Effects of Intemperance in Drinking, p. 56, &c. fected by this hydrogene, as he seems to think that the resi nous matter which bile contains is from this cause much in creased, after spirituous potations, and that liver complaints and calculi may be thus increased, seems to him very probable. But the superabundance of combustible matter, collected in the body by habits of intemperance, is made still more pro bable by the terrible catastrophe of several people, chiefly females, who were found almost totally consumed, in situations where they could only have come in contact with the fire, and even in some cases, where that was not ascertained. — This appears the more extraordinary, as, where criminals had been condemned to the stake, or dead bodies consumed, as in the funerals of the ancients, a great quantity of combus tibles was found necessary for the purpose.

That the inflam mable or spirituous parts of the liquor is detained in the body, appears probable from this circumstance, that the urine of habitual drunkards is uncommonly aqueous and limpid. From even the slight observations mentioned here, it will appear evident that intemperance of this species has a natural tendency to produce certain diseases, such as apoplexy, as the circulation of the blood through the brain is impeded, by the small vessels being obliterated, which is often found to be the case on the dissection of those who have brought on this disease by hard drinking. Epilepsy and spasms may be accounted for by the narcotic quality of alcohol. Of this disorder ending in the premature death of habitual topers, more instances than one have fallen within my observation. In flammation of (lie liver has been accounted for before.

And as to the gout, it is the known concomitant of Bacchanalian b indulgence, and perhaps, (as Dr. Trotter observes) it might have a good effect on the juvenile debauchee, to introduce him into the chamber of the veteran in excess, as the children of Lacedæmon were taught sobriety by seeing their slaves in a state of intoxication. Schirrus of the bowels arises from the aptitude of spirituous liquors to harden and contract the animal fibre, and to coagulate the juices. Hence arises the jaundice, when the biliary vessels and ducts are compres sed, and the free egress of the bile prevented, by which means it is, by the absorbing vessels, carried into the circulation, and renders the whole appearance hideous and disgusting. — It would be tedious to dwell on the melancholy subject of indigestion, dropsy, consumption, diabetes, and even madness and idcotism, (several instances I well remember to have seen) premature old age and debility, which might be enumerated, as effects of this pernicious habit.

The fatal effects of excess in drinking has long been the disgrace of the tropical climates. There the French formerly suffered less than the English, from their habitual temperance ; but since they have indulged more of late in spirituous liquors, the mortality among them has increased to a great degree, in Domingo. In Ireland, among the poor, who in the years of scarcity in 1800 and 1801, were almost totally debarred from the use of spirituous liquors, the contagious disorders of the times were neither spread so far, nor carried off such num bers, as among those who could afford to allow themselves their usual indulgence. According to the medical repository of New York, quoted by Dr. Trotter, a sober citizen of America usually drinks eight gills of spirits, i. e. bad Rum, in a day ; on which he observes that, it is well thai continent is constantly supplied with a stream of population from the old world, or their pea santry would soon vanish from the face of the earth.

The English, according to Camden, (Annals 1581) who had been remarkable before for their national sobriety, first learned this vice in their wars in the Netherlands. The Ro man armies were allowed only vinegar and water in all their expeditions ; yet with this simple beverage they conquered the world.* But now so prevalent is the mode among all ranks in these kingdoms, that scarcely any business is done without a copious libation to Bacchus ; where often the manners of the good are corrupted by the examples of the profligate, and the man that could scarce bear half a pint, is soon brought to the habit of going home with one bottle more. Sobriety, and even total abstinence from wine, was the cha racteristic of many of the most celebrated nations of antiquity. The Athenians and Lacedæmonians, the Romans and Cartha genians and the Nervii, in ancient times ; and in later ages, the Saracens.

Two observations made by Dr. Trotter are of great impor tance. The first is, that with regard to the supposed danger of leaving off the habit at once, there is no more than in a man's quitting an unwholesome atmosphere for a salutary air ; in the one case the man has been breathing poison ; in the other, he has been in the habit of swallowing it. The second is, that we never hear of a person who has brought himself to a prison by too copious libations to Bacchus, suffer ing in his health by that state of temperance which has been imposed upon him by necessity. A few particulars of the last year of the life of Burns shall * Trotter p. 141. b2 XX be added here by the way of authority and illustration, taken from the writings of a gentleman whose philosophical and moral observations, in his life of that distinguished bard, do equal honour to his humanity and intellectual endowments.— " Though by nature of an athletic form, Burns had in his constitution the peculiarities and delicacies that belong to the temperament of genius.

He was liable, from a very early period of life, to that interruption in the process of digestion, which arises from deep and anxious thought ; but which is some times the effect, and sometimes the cause, of depression of spi rits ; connected with this disorder of the stomach, there was a disposition to head-ache, frequently accompanied by violent and irregular movements of the heart. Endowed by nature with great sensibility of nerve, Burns was, in his corporeal as well as his mental system, liable to inordinate impressions 3 to feyer of body as well as of mind. This predisposition to disease, which strict temperance in diet, regular exercise, and sound sleep, might have subdued, habits of a very different nature strengthened and inflamed ; perpetually stimulated by alcohol, in one or other of its various forms ; the inordinate motions of the circulating system became at length habitual ; the process of nutrition became unable to supply the waste, and the powers of life began to fail.

Upwards of a year be fore his death, there was an evident decline in his personal appearance ; and though his appetite continued unimpaired, he was himself sensible that his constitution was sinking. In his moments of thought he reflected with the deepest regret on his fatal progress, clearly foreseeing the goal toward which he was hastening, without the strength of mind necessary to stop, or even to slacken his course. His temper now became more irritable and gloomy. He fled from himself into society often of the lowest kind, and in such company, that part of the con vivial scene, in which wine increases sensibility, and excites be nevolence, was hurried over to reach the succeeding part, over which uncontrolled passion generally presided.'' Such were the concluding scenes of one, whose social virtues, and uncom mon endowments of mind, would have rendered him an orna ment to society, and whose name, notwithstanding this lamen table degradation, will ever continue to be remembered by all lovers of genius with enthusiastic regard.

I shall endeavour, in the conclusion, to point out one or two advantages of allegorical poetry ; not in order to vindicate this juvenile attempt, which rather needs, though I fear it can scarcely claim, an apology ; but to shew with what effect it is calculated to convey instruction. In the works of Spenser and Phineas Fletcher, those admirable fictions, in which the virtues and vices are embodied and employed in a series of ad ventures, suited to the characters of these ideal personages, by engaging the fancy and the passions in the cause of virtue, attain in a peculiar manner that end, which has always been the object of the best moral writers. I need not mention the venerable and awful authorities, by whom this manner of ad dressing the imagination has been sanctioned in all ages. In epic and dramatic compositions, the poet is confined to a certain range : he can describe the contests of passion and of duty, with all their oppositions and combinations, in great variety.

But there are many interesting situations in which man is placed ; many moral relations, which could not be exhibited with effect in the scenes of Sophocles, or the pages of Homer ; situations of the highest importance, which demand his most serious attention; and to combine this attention with pleasure, is a proof of no common skill. To give one instance, the lamentable effects of indolence could never be exhibited on the stage, nor displayed in a narrative poem ; even the lyric bard looks down with disdain upon the inglorious subject, and the satirist passes it by. But when Thomson gives to this pernicious habit, " a local habitation and a name," and dis plays his character, attributes, and incantations, with the skill of a master, it is not easy to conceive that any person of taste and feeling can read it without being delighted and im proved.

How necessary it is to dwell upon the nature of a vice, to whose allurements such numbers are exposed, requires no additional evidence, and yet the whole is but an illustra tion of the advise of Horace. Vitanda est improba siren — desidia — a maxim, 'tis true, easily remembered, but as easily forgotten. Indeed, when one considers what has been done in old and modern times, by writers of this class, there are few situa tions of life, or few duties to be performed, which in the hand of a genuine poet, might not be pourtrayed to the fancy in this engaging dress. But besides this, he that pursues an hero through a series of adventures, or exhibits him on the stage, is by the laws of criticism obliged to exhibit mixed characters.* But this is not the case with allegoric writers ; they may, by a sort of poetical chemistry, extract the essence of every virtue, and every vice ; they may exhibit one in its native charms, and the other in its genuine and unpalliated deformity, with all those talents, which the poet and the painter enjoy in common, • There are some illustrious exceptions.

We are interested in the character of Madoc, though it is represented as faultless ; and as some critics may think, above humanity ; but it is precisely his humanity that engages our affections. It is the many trying situations, as a brother, a friend, a chieftain in an hazardous enterprize, and a legislator, in which he is placed, and his conduct on these emergencies, which to me at least render the poem, that bears his name, highly interesting. in order to render the picture striking. This Spenser and Fletcher learned from the moralists of ancient times, particularly Aristotle, who taught them to give their descriptions al most the exactness of a philosophical definition ; and from the immortal bards of the Tuscan school, they learned to add the beauty of colour to the truth of design. The utility of those highly contrasted pictures, need not be pointed out to any re flecting mind ; but the public has now a fresh opportunity of appreciating this kind of poetic merit, in the new edition of Spenser, with the learned and elegant illustrations given by the Rev. Mr. Todd.

In order to exemplify what has been advanced above, I shall give a few stanzas from Fletcher, as a poet who is less known than Spenser. The reader's own re collection will supply him with descriptions from the latter, of a still superior character. FLETCHER'S PURPLE ISLAND. Canto VII.— Stanza 46, Kc. Next Adieus* his sons — first Echthros-r sly, "Whose prick'd-up ears kept open house for lies ; And sleering eyes still watch, and wait to spy When to return still living injuries : Fair weather smil'd upon his painted face, And eyes spoke peace, till he had time and place, Then pours down showers of rage, and streams of rancour base. So when a sable cloud, with swelling sail, Comes swimming thro' calm skies, the silent air, While fierce winds sleep in Æol's rocky jail With spangled beams emborder'd, glitters fair : * Injustice t Hatred, or Enmity.

But soon skies lour— straight clattering hail is bred, Scattering cold spots — Light hides her golden head, And with untimely winter earth's o'ersilvered. Eris* the next, of sex unfit for war ; Her arms were bitter words from flaming tongue, Which, never quiet, wrangle, fight, and jar, Ne would she weigh report with right or wrong ; What once she held, that would she ever hold, And non obstantes fierce, with courage bold, The last word will she have, or never cease to scold. Thumosf the fourth, a dire revengeful swain, Whose soul was made of flames, whose eyes of fire; Wrath in his heart, hell, rage, and fury reign ; Fierce was his look, when clad in sparkling ire, But when dead paleness on his cheek took seizure, And all the blood in's boiling heart did treasure, Then, in his wild reverige, kept he not mean nor measure.

Porneiusj next him pass'd, a meagre wight, Whose leaden eye sunk deep in swimming head, And joyless look, like some pale ashy sprite, Seem'd as he now were dying, or now dead, And with him Wastefulness, that all expended, And Want, that still in theft and prison ended ; An hundred foul diseases close at's back attended. Aselgcs.§ Lust in strange nests this cuckoo egg conceiv'd, Which, nurst with surfeits, dress'd with fond disguises, • Contention. t Wrath. 1 Fornication. § Impudence. In Fancy's school his breeding first receiv'd, So this wild spark to wilder flame arises ; And now, to court preferr'd, high blood he sires, Then blows up pride, vain mirth, and loose desires, And heavenly souls (0 grief) with hellish flames inspires. But, to detail even a part of this character in Fletcher alone, would be to transcribe a great part of his three last cantos, which abound with the finest lessons of religion and morality, couched under these representations.

My expectations are not sufficiently sanguine to afford any probability, that those who have been long devoted to this habit, will pay attention to a fairy tale. The young and the ingenuous, who yet are only in danger, may in time withdraw their foot from the snare, and resist the wand of Circe with effect. It would be the highest presumption in me, to ad dress the members of the legislature and magistracy on such an occasion, as I hope they are themselves very well inclined to improve the physical and moral condition of the lower classes of the community. But close attention to the subject is no less needful than good resolutions. Higher bounties on exportation of spirituous liquors to countries where they are in demand, together with heavier duties upon home consumption, might require consideration, though in this case it seems we must be cautious of interference with the profits of the Creolian rum factor.

The distillation of grain is defended as the best encourage ment of agriculture, but that this end might be sufficiently at tained by the operations of the brewery alone, seems not very dubious. When vast quantities of the stores, which had been set apart for the distilleries, were converted to the nourishment of the poor, in the years of famine, it does not ap pear that any great deficiency in the revenue was the con sequence. I shall conclude with the observations of an author who sets this matter in a very strong light, but whether in a just point of view, it is not for me to determine. What he says, however, deserves some attention. " As to producing a revenue to the state by such means, viz. the encouragement to distilleries ; if it injures the health of your people, I ask, would it be justifiable to lay a tax upon fuuerals, and then inoculate your country with the plague ?